Revealed in a Moment of Need
by adrianjames
Summary: Having faced down Hawkmoth, Ladybug is in a rush to find out if Adrien is ok. Cat Noir, pushing down his own heavy emotions, is perplexed as to her sudden intense interest in his civilian persona.


_**Notes** : Well, having now binge read a number of good and less-good fanfics, I decided I'd try my hand at writing out a reveal scenario that I had come to mind. I don't expect the show to go this way, the show's a little too upbeat for that I think, but you never know._

 _This started as a reveal scenario but then I got more and more into the background of what led them to that moment. I originally was going to allude to it like I do with the first fight, without going into detail, but then the main battle took on a life of its own. No Chat Blanc in this, I love the idea but I didn't feel it needed it here._

 _Happy to receive any feedback, as I say, my first go at this._

* * *

Ladybug threw the door open as they ran into Adrien's over-sized room together.

Cat Noir could see her scouring the place with her eyes – the bed, the climbing wall, the arcade games, and so on – not entirely sure what she was trying to find. He would have been surprised by the familiarity she seemed to have with his own bedroom (not that she knew it was _his_ ), but then he remembered that a couple of years back they had been here in relation to akuma attacks. It brought to mind memories of having to dash into the bathroom for secret transformations, times where ladybug almost walked in on him "showering"…

"He's not here!" she announced, though more to herself than anything. Seemingly without a second thought she sprung up to the open window of his room and Cat could tell from the determination in her movements that she would be up and out without so much as an explanation if he didn't say anything. She cared about people who got affected by akuma incidents but the resolve she was acting with at the moment still seemed uncharacteristic to him.

"Ladybug, wait! Where are you going?"

* * *

It had been an intense evening.

When they had met up across town early in the afternoon to face the latest akuma neither of them knew this would be the day that would finally lead them to Hawkmoth. It had been four years since the fateful day when they met and although their prowess in using their powers had grown remarkably in that time it had been more fortuitous that they had ended up here.

The fight with the akumatized victim was one of their more extreme battles and as they had worn on through it – each having to duck out for a while to allow their kwami to recharge – Hawkmoth himself had made an appearance when he sensed his minion had an unbeatable upper hand. The duo had, however, managed to work their way out of the situation once again, just in time to see him retreat into the Agreste Mansion, which was very close to where the battle was taking place at that point. This was a fact they could only acknowledge briefly before returning their attention to the akuma, hoping that Hawkmoth hadn't noticed that they had seen where he went.

The battle took them further away from that location but eventually they triumphed against the villain of the week, Ladybug righting all the wrongs it had made in the usual flurry of ladybugs. Putting it down to the sheer length of the battle and the exhaustion that caused, Ladybug had paid little attention to the fact that during that last stretch of the fight Cat Noir seemed decidedly off of his game, almost getting taken out a number of times and nearly completely missing the target of his Cataclysm. But after having parted to recharge again, they had joined together once more on some of the rooftops adjacent to Notre Dame to discuss what to do with the evening's discovery.

"It can't be him!" Cat Noir had immediately asserted, hands balled into fists, "It just can't! We already ruled him out!"

Denial, Ladybug remembered, was how Cat Noir had reacted last time as well. He was usually keen to talk through any theory as to the true identity of Hawkmoth but there seemed a very unusual resistance to this theory when it had been considered last time. But now they had the closest thing to undeniable proof that it was Gabriel Agreste. Sure, it could have been anyone from that household but they knew there were very few people there, all of whom had been affected in some way by akumas in the past. Adrien's bodyguard and Gabriel's assistant had each been akumatized, with the tell-tale purple butterfly-shape glowing across their faces to give them instructions. Adrien had had to be saved multiple times from akumas, even being targeted by his bodyguard whilst the butterfly mask gave him instructions. Which left Gabriel himself. Neither of them could recall ever seeing the usual purple, butterfly-shaped glow across the face of The Collector. They had to hand it to him, akumatizing himself showed real commitment to maintaining his cover, and letting himself be hypnotized by an akuma earlier than that had risked his very life. But those actions also betrayed in him a strange belief that the people he wanted to lose would actually win, since that need to happen for him to be saved.

Cat Noir's emotions seemed to shift to anger once they had decided it must be Gabriel.

"He's risked his own son's life countless times! What kind of a, a, _monster_ does that?!" he shouted, punching a nearby chimney and sending bricks flying, making Ladybug jump. Sure, she'd seen him angry before, even been on the receiving end of it when he'd learned that she knew more about the miraculous than she'd told him, back before he had met Master Fu. But this was something different, almost personal. He brushed the brick dust off of his gloves but balled his hands back into fists.

"He's been the one all this time?! It's been HIM who hurt ALL THOSE PEOPLE!" He roared into the night sky. What was with Cat Noir? She had tried to calm him down and get him back on track, getting them to think about what they were going to do now that they knew. Cat had gone quiet for a while as she made suggestions, before suggesting something strange.

"Maybe we should just take his miraculous and leave him to think about what he's done… does he really need to go to prison or anything? He's still got family who need him…" the sudden change of reasoning confused Ladybug even more – was he bargaining? For Hawkmoth? They couldn't do that – Gabriel needed to face the authorities, to face Paris, for what he'd done. Even if it would break the heart of the love of her life, she thought. _She_ had motive for wanting to minimize the fallout of this revelation, not that Cat knew it, but why was _he_ so keen to change the outcome of the coming events?

He'd collapsed onto his back and just stared up at the stars as they had reasoned out what they could and couldn't do, agreeing to let the police know what was happening as soon as they decided to make a move on the Agreste Mansion. He seemed thoroughly depressed. And that's when something clicked for Ladybug.

"Cat… are you grieving?" she had asked tentatively. He'd shown denial, anger, bargaining and depression, and seemed to be approaching some sort of acceptance. He'd denied it (of course) and instead put it down to the enormity of the significance of finally apprehending the man behind the butterfly mask. She decided to accept this reason, after all who was to say what a normal reaction to this kind of thing was? Grieving didn't make sense anyway, unless Cat Noir was a particularly keen fashion aficionado, but although that hadn't come up in conversation specifically (they were careful discussing personal details for fear of revealing their identities) he didn't strike her at all as someone who would care so much about a celebrity of any kind.

And so they had decided to make their move, carefully circling the roofs of the properties around the Agreste Mansion to see if there was anything they had missed, when they stumbled upon it. On one side of a seemingly unused building next to the Mansion there was a roof that had a very suspicious butterfly shaped incline, facing away from the street so as to remain unseen unless at this vantage point. It didn't look like a window exactly, until they realized it _was_ glass and there must have been some sort of shutter inside. They noted that the road between the Mansion and this building had had some work done on it at some point in the past – nothing particularly noticeable now, but the stones that made it up were subtly different on that stretch than on all of the other roads around the mansion, almost as if something like a tunnel could have been placed underneath it….

Had Hawkmoth jumped into the mansion because he was trying to avoid them seeing his lair, unwittingly alerting them to who he was in the process anyway? Or were they wrong about him after all? Now they had to decide what to do – enter the mansion at the risk of being wrong or go full on attack into what was quite possibly an empty building, alerting their adversary in the process?

Glancing through any windows they could see, they settled on the mansion as their point of entry, noticing movement in what was quite probably Gabriel's study (Cat couldn't confirm that he knew it was). He appeared to be throwing things as if angry – the kind of behavior that might draw an akuma, if you weren't the one already controlling them?

Ladybug called Roger, filling the policeman in on what they knew, explaining their theory and its possible inaccuracy, and the seemingly abandoned building with the suspicious skylight, before the two of them launched themselves into the air towards the mansion.

Crashing through the dining room windows, a scream could be heard in a room nearby. They moved to run into the hallway when Adrien's bodyguard ran into fight them, knocking them each flying before appreciating who they were, stopping in his tracks and respectfully backing off. In the background Ladybug heard Gabriel's voice directing his assistant, "Nathalie! Fetch Adrien! A hostage will make a good bargaining chip, especially given how fond of him Ladybug seems to be!" She glanced at Cat and the bared teeth told her he'd heard it too. He looked livid, and she was genuinely concerned he might do something reckless. What had gotten into that Cat today?

Cat pounced out of the room and Ladybug dashed after him, finding him face to face with Nathalie. Adrien's bodyguard had followed them into the hallway and Ladybug watched as Cat picked Nathalie up and threw her at him. The bodyguard caught her no problem – Ladybug didn't think Cat had meant to hurt either of them with that move – and Cat growled towards them, "keep her restrained and stay here". The bodyguard looked uncertain for a moment, probably still processing everything that was happening, before giving a determined look of agreement.

In the main room they saw a hole in the ground that hadn't been there before, right in front of the large picture on the wall. Were parts of that picture pushed in? A secret passageway no one else had known about? Taking in their location within the house they both came to the same insight that this part was closest to that building across the street. It seemed as though they were right on both counts.

Cat Noir seemed ready to dive into the tunnel when Ladybug stopped him. "He doesn't know we know about the other building. He'll be expecting us to both come this way." They agreed instead that Ladybug would follow the tunnel whilst Cat Noir would take to the roof and come in from above. That way, they hoped, there would be no escape.

She jumped down the hole, following the tunnel as best she could in the dark, kicking herself for not having given Cat the route that would have benefited from his night vision. Thankfully she could see a light at the exit point, this time pointing upwards. Listening carefully she made out the final three words he spoke, "Dark Wings, rise!".

With a flash of purple light she knew she was effectively cornered, that he was expecting her (well, them) to jump out of the ground at any time into a room they knew nothing about where he had all of the advantages. As she thought about what best to do to get herself the upper hand she heard a more familiar, albeit muffled, voice from above. "Cataclysm!" A loud smashing and crashing told her that her partner had used his power to break through the blocked skylight. "You!" was the only other word she heard him say, followed by a thud that she could only assume to be the two of them colliding into something.

She launched herself upwards into the open area to see that Cat Noir had indeed entered through the now open skylight and sent Hawkmoth flying across the room. Cat was crouched close to the ground, eyes not even acknowledging Ladybug as he surveyed Hawkmoth pulling himself up off of the ground and dusting down his purple suit. She also noticed the vast number of glowing butterflies in the room, decidedly not purple and therefore, she hoped safe. Until she remembered that Hawkmoth was surrounded by them and her partner was undeniably driven by intense emotion at this point.

Hawkmoth seemed to have noticed the same thing about Cat Noir because he immediately reached for the butterfly nearest to him, infusing it with that dark purple glow they were so familiar with. "Fly to him, my little akuma, and evilize him!"

On pure instinct Ladybug launched her yo-yo toward the swarm of butterflies the infected one flew through, managing to hit it square on and stun it so that it fell to the floor. She suddenly recognized that the yo-yo wasn't setup for purifying akumas and immediately remedied that fact. Looking back up she inhaled sharply as her eyes widened, the butterfly was not on the floor anymore and as she scanned the room she spotted it coming up behind Cat Noir as he was cautiously making his approach to Hawkmoth. Instinct took over again as she hurled the yo-yo a second time, taking in the infected butterfly and releasing it, white again.

None of this seemed to matter to Hawkmoth however, as she grasped that in the time she had been doing that he had infected half a dozen more butterflies. Thankfully, although Cat seemed completely focused on his nemesis, he was moving in such a way that suggested he was taking the butterflies into account. Three of them flew towards him, faster than a butterfly should have any business flying, but Cat expertly cat-apulted himself up (pun surprisingly unintended, Cat's focus right now wouldn't even have allowed for puns), spinning in mid-air in such a way that all three flew past him. He landed in much the same position he had started in, albeit a few feet forward. He didn't look back at the butterflies that had passed him at all, which Ladybug initially took as carelessness whilst she purified them, before realising that she knew him better and that such an action was due to his complete trust in her ability to protect him.

"You!" Cat hissed again, dodging sideways out of the way of another butterfly. Two more to go. "It's been you this whole time!" he continued. Ladybug cleansed the fourth and noticed that the remaining two were on either side of Cat Noir. They both moved towards him in unison and as she opened her mouth to warn him he was already in the air. He vaulted over one whilst swinging his baton in such a way as to fire the other right into Hawkmoth's face. Ladybug purified the first as Hawkmoth batted at his face for the other, stumbling backwards. He regained his composure just soon enough to become conscious of Cat Noir careening through the air towards him, staff raised. Lifting his cane he deflected the downward blow sideways, using his free hand to punch Cat Noir in the face and make him roll off to the side. Ladybug leapt forward, before realizing that she couldn't see the final infected butterfly. It had to still be in here so Cat Noir was still vulnerable. She needed to find it.

Cat Noir leapt from his position on the floor as the head of Hawkmoth's cane left an indent in the floor where his chest had been. "I will have your miraculous!" He shouted, "even if I have to take it with my own hands!" As he spoke of hands he used his own to infect two more butterflies. Great. Ladybug really wanted to have a hand in taking down their enemy but it seemed her focus had to be on keeping her partner from being evilized.

Once again, Cat Noir jumped, avoiding one akuma and swatting another aside. This time Ladybug spotted the third and snatched it out of the air from above his head with her yo-yo as it tried descending on him. He leapt forward once more but Hawkmoth jumped out of the way, smacking him in the side with the head of the cane. Cat Noir yelped, grabbing his side as he regained his balance, quickly dropping to all fours to avoid one of the incoming akumas. Hawkmoth had made two more, meaning four flying around in total and Ladybug quickly turned her attention to purifying each of them. It was frustrating, Hawkmoth was making them as quickly as she was dispatching them and she knew she needed to change her strategy. The obvious option came to mind. "Lucky Charm!" A hand-fan materialized in mid-air and dropped into her hands. As Hawkmoth lunged towards Cat she turned and looked around the room, one thing coming into focus – the now smashed butterfly window. "Of course".

Hawkmoth was relishing in his ability to send akuma after akuma at Cat Noir, knowing that Ladybug wasn't to be worried about whilst she had to be focused on purifying them. So far he hadn't even pushed himself, he knew he could probably make them faster than she could purify them but he was focused on fighting hand to hand as well. He watched as Cat Noir dodged akuma after akuma. He shouldn't be surprised at his expertise, given how often he'd watched the Cat defeat his akumatized minions in the past, but he was still infuriated by it. Eventually one would get him and then it would be game over, Ladybug would never be able to take down Cat Noir if he was akumatized as well as empowered by a Miraculous (her defeats of him during second-hand akuma control not withstanding). Hawkmoth reached out for more butterflies to infect but somehow missed. Or so he thought. Reaching again, in fact flailing his arms through the air, he suddenly panicked as he took in the fact that there were no more butterflies in the room. He turned to find Ladybug spinning her yo-yo to direct the butterflies out of the now open window. No! He turned back in time to be knocked to the ground by an incoming Cat Noir.

At the same time there was commotion at the window as a squad of RAID Police slid down into the room, spreading out and raising their weapons as Ladybug purified the remaining akuma. Cat Noir seized the cane from where it had fallen to the floor and raised it above his head, legs either side of Hawkmoth. Hawkmoth had no time to react to Cat bringing the cane down as hard as he could, only able to hear Ladybug cry out, "Cat, NO!" SMASH!

…

Hawkmoth opened his eyes and glanced left. The head of the cane was in pieces, a small crater in the ground revealing the strength of the impact. Dumbstruck and unable to move, Hawkmoth lay there as Cat dropped the cane and tore the miraculous from his shirt, throwing it absentmindedly to the side. A flash of purple light filled the room as Hawkmoth's suit disappeared to reveal a disheveled Gabriel Agreste.

"What in the hell is wrong with you?!" Cat shouted. Gabriel didn't respond. "How does someone get to your level?!"

Ladybug picked up the Miraculous and stored it in her yo-yo. "Cat…"

"You have a family! You're successful! You have everything and do everything you want!" The room was silent.

"No I don't", Gabriel whispered, looking away but to nowhere in particular. It was strange to see the cold, calculating man, usually so in control in any situation, lying on the floor, looking thoroughly defeated.

"What?!" Cat demanded. "What could you possibly need?!"

"MY WIFE!" Gabriel barked at him, catching Cat off-guard. "My son's mother!" he added, diverting his gaze again.

Cat looked shocked. Whatever he was feeling, he had no words in response.

"She's gone and I need her back", Gabriel moved to explain.

After a moment's quiet, where not even the RAID police moved a muscle, Cat responded.

"She's gone. I'm sorry, but she's gone." His words were final. He wasn't reasoning, he was stating facts. "This was so wrong" he spoke, his voice quiet and remorseful. "And now", he said decisively, "you've lost the only family you had left".

Ladybug jumped. Adrien. Where was he? Was he safe?

Cat dragged Gabriel by his collar, his ring starting to beep, until he was a few feet from the police, effectively throwing him at Roger who was leading the group. "He's all yours".

Cat turned to look at Ladybug and she struggled to understand the expression on his face. It was clear it had been an emotional night for him and that he would need to process it with someone. She wanted to be there for him, and she planned to be later, but right now she needed to find Adrien. Evidently, her face was hard to read at this point as well, because Cat spoke up, "Ladybug?"

She spoke softly, her gaze elsewhere, "Miraculous Ladybug", throwing the hand-fan up. But as the ladybugs repaired the roof (confusing the police now without the exit they had used as an entrance), she immediately turned toward the secret passageway.

* * *

She wasted no time, plunging back into the hole that she had emerged from earlier and racing back to the Mansion, her earrings letting out their beeps. Cat Noir was right behind her, trying to understand what the look on her face had meant. They'd just defeated him, Hawkmoth, after so many years of trying to even find him, they had his miraculous and he was in custody. So why did she look as if she was frightened?

She bounded through each room of the house on the ground floor as he did his best to keep up with her. She ran through the dining room whilst Cat stopped to direct the bodyguard to take Nathalie to the police and tell them everything that he knew.

She seemed to have checked almost everywhere else when he came back out as she was heading toward the room furthest away. He caught up to her as Ladybug threw the door open and they ran into Adrien's over-sized room together.

Cat Noir could see her scouring the place with her eyes – the bed, the climbing wall, the arcade games, and so on – not entirely sure what she was trying to find. He would have been surprised by the familiarity she seemed to have with his own bedroom (not that she knew it was _his_ ), but then he remembered that a couple of years back they had been here in relation to akuma attacks. It brought to mind memories of having to dash into the bathroom for secret transformations, times where ladybug almost walked in on him "showering"…

"He's not here!" she announced, though more to herself than anything. Seemingly without a second thought she sprung up to the open window of his room and Cat could tell from the determination in her movements that she would be up and out without so much as an explanation if he didn't say anything. She cared about people who got affected by akuma incidents but the resolve she was acting with at the moment still seemed uncharacteristic to him.

"Ladybug, wait! Where are you going?"

She froze in position, half standing as she looked back at him. Her eyes acknowledged him but her pink cheeks made it seem as though she was embarrassed at having been caught in some way and didn't know how to, or want to, explain. She straightened up and did her best to control the waiver in her voice. "I need to find Adrien" she said matter-of-fact-ly.

"But why?" Cat Noir asked, hoping the curiosity in his voice sounded normal, rather than betraying his lack of understanding at her seemingly sudden extreme interest in his civilian self. His ring beeped again.

She looked so conflicted, like she wanted to talk to him but that the task in her mind was too important or urgent. "I know something's not ok with you, Cat. Even in light of everything that's happened tonight, this is affecting you more than makes sense. And I want to be here with you so that we can talk about it but…" she paused before continuing, "I need to find Adrien", she said resolutely.

"Why him?" Cat Noir pushed. "Why is he so important?"

Ladybug looked put-out at not being able to swing away and start her search, and he still sensed the embarrassment she seemed to be trying to hide, but she calmly took a deep breath and looking down explained, "He lost his mom a while back, Hawkmoth, I mean Gabriel, mentioned that." She paused and looked at him to make sure he was following, but when he didn't move or speak she continued. "Losing his dad too, especially like this, will devastate him." Cat Noir was frozen in place and Ladybug was surprised that he wasn't reacting. But inside he was. He was processing that her urgency to find him was tied to her urgency to want to comfort him, which in turn showed him how deeply she must care about Adrien, about him. This was confirmed to him as she concluded, "I need to find him because he needs someone to comfort him".

That was enough to do it.

He had battled through so many emotions tonight. He'd denied it to Ladybug but evidently he had been going through stages of grief, albeit in a rushed way since the situation needed to be acted on quickly. The anger, the depression, there had been so much to bottle up, and bottle he had, only allowing the rage out to feed his intensity in combat. But now that they were here and what needed to be done had been, he had no reason to keep his emotions in check. He had so far because Ladybug had been determined to do something more, but realizing that she cared so deeply for _him_ had been one emotion too many, even if this one was such a positive emotion. He felt the dam begin to burst.

Ladybug, not knowing any of what was going on in Cat Noir's heart or mind turned back to the window and grabbed her yo-yo as her earrings beeped once more.

"Ladybug, wait" Cat whispered. It was quiet, but she heard it.

Ready to explain again, although perturbed at the need to keep telling him, Ladybug turned back, "Cat I'll come ba…" she started before she noticed. His eyes were full of tears.

Her heart was now conflicted too. She needed to ensure that Adrien was safe and she knew he would need to be comforted. She knew she was clumsy and stammered around him, but the weight of what had happened tonight meant that she also knew she had to be strong and firm for him, someone to lean on in the midst of everything happening. This wasn't a ploy for him to get close to her, this was pure altruism and selflessness, born out of her deep love for him. But here was Cat, doing something she had never seen from him before. Not in all of their years working together. He was crying. And she needed to comfort her best friend first.

"Ladybug, I…" he started, and she stepped back down to approach him.

"Cat…?"

He looked at her. She looked at him. And he sighed. With a broken voice he let out two words.

"Claws in"

A green light shone brightly as the significance of the words he had just spoken registered in her mind and she froze. The big green cat eyes she had been staring at were suddenly human eyes, though just as green as before. Her focus still only on his eyes, she could tell that his hair, although the same color, had slightly changed form but was still somehow strikingly familiar. As she let her senses take in the other peripheral details about him, his height, his build, his posture, that sense of recognition became clearer. She had been fighting internally about whether to close her eyes because they weren't supposed to know each other's identities when everything clicked. Cat's behavior suddenly made sense to her before the person in front of her came properly into focus and she gasped.

It was Adrien. Cat was Adrien.

Before she could start to think about any of the implications of it all he let out a loud sob and collapsed, Ladybug rushing forward and catching him before his knees hit the floor. Lowering him softly she pulled him into her as she knelt alongside him and his tears fell.

"Sorry, Bugaboo, I know you wanted to hide identities", he said, his voice cracked.

"No Cat… A-Adrien…" she stuttered, her heart pounding as she tried to reconcile the two in her head. "It's ok, it's ok, I understand. I've got you. Let it out"

And so he did. He cried, loudly and unashamedly. He tried to explain a few times what he was feeling – the hurt, the betrayal, the selfishness his father had shown, the uncertainty about the future – getting only so far each time before being overcome with the emotion of it all. He had nothing to say from the perspective of Cat Noir, nothing about the battle, this was all Adrien.

Eventually, he got to the final emotion he needed to process.

"Why did you care so much about me as Adrien?" He posed to Ladybug, the warmth of care he had felt at that revelation matched only by the curiosity at how seemingly out of the blue it was to him.

"Well…" she hesitated, but he had gotten them into this situation first. She breathed out deeply before starting again. "When I found you I wasn't going to comfort you as Ladybug". She took a moment for him to process what that meant.

"You mean…" he started.

"We know each other," she finished.

"In real life?" He queried.

"We see each other most days," she explained. "Not that I knew that until just now."

He went to open his mouth, trying to find the next question, when she spoke up instead.

"Spots off"

This time the flash of light was pink, which threw him for a second because he was so used to green, even though it should have been obvious. He blinked as a result of the flash (they were in an unlit room, save for any light coming in from outside, and now neither of them had their transformations on to aid their vision) and let the silhouette holding him take form. A million thoughts ran through his head as the connection was made and he reassessed past interactions with her in both her identities. "Princess," he uttered before letting tears flow again and collapsing back into her arms.

* * *

Both Plagg & Tikki watched from afar. Plagg had flown off to a comfortable distance as soon as Adrien had dropped his transformation, knowing from previous experience the delicacy of these moments. As much as he had wanted cheese and as much as he could be a pain about it, he had his moments of sensitivity and this was thankfully one of them. Not to mention he knew where the cheese was in Adrien's room anyway. Truth be told he himself had been excited to be, he had assumed, soon to be reuniting with Tikki. And not in a one-off way, but, assuming further that all things worked out moving forward, on a regular basis for the foreseeable future.

When Ladybug did drop her transformation Plagg had been ready to grab Tikki in his arms too as they embraced. She had cried, as he had figured she would, always feeling the emotion of these things more than him. He would make fun of her later, knowing that anything he said now to that effect would spell trouble for him.

They had known each other's charge's identities for quite some time now, each unable to tell the truth to their respective heroes. It was always nice reaching the stage where there was no need for secrets. Usually keeping identities hidden lasted only a little while, so that the new Ladybug & Cat Noir could get to know each other and prove themselves, but this time they had had to keep it secret for much longer because of the threat of Hawkmoth. Now that that was finally dealt with they could rest easy.

Plagg had led Tikki to his resting place, which was a good vantage point for watching their charges, and Tikki had placed the Butterfly Miraculous there for safe keeping too.

As Adrien cried into Marinette's shoulder, neither of the teens noticed the door open quietly. Plagg & Tikki did and watched as Adrien's bodyguard came in. They weren't sure what he would do, but really didn't want him to interrupt the significance of this moment for those two, and so flew over to above the door where he wouldn't see them. It was reassuring to know that he wasn't a pawn of Hawkmoth's as Nathalie had been (which made some sense since he spent all of his time with Adrien and not with Gabriel), but right now it was unclear what he was here for. They breathed a quiet sigh of relief as they watched him take in the scene and quietly back out of the room, closing the door as silently as he had opened it, a smile on his face. Plagg phased through and followed him for a bit before returning to happily report to Tikki that he was blocking the corridor and refusing anyone, including police, entry.

There was only one point, later on, when he let someone through, and Plagg & Tikki watched again as Alya & Nino looked in on Adrien & Marinette and backed out quietly just as the bodyguard had done before, having opted as well to not interrupt the tender moment. Tikki followed this time to hear their plan to go and let Marinette's parents know where she was and what was going on, which helped Tikki relax a lot as well.

* * *

After this last bout of crying onto Marinette's (no longer Ladybug's) shoulder, he let out an exhausted sigh. Thankfully this had not been a long outpouring, as Marinette had been left a little embarrassed about the position she found herself in, due to not understanding what Adrien's latest tears meant. She was, however, determined to comfort him in any way she could, regardless of what it might mean.

He finally spoke, "It's you!" he said with a smile, though she couldn't see it was said with one.

"Surprise…" she said in an uncertain manner, "I'm sorry it's just me…" she added.

"What?!" Adrien asked, bolting upright, startling her.

"I-it's just me… Marinette."

"What do you mean 'it's just you, Marinette'?!" He almost yelled.

"Well…", she started, "I know you've had feelings for me as Cat Noir, but that was for Ladybug." He didn't seem to be understanding her so she carried on, "but as Adrien, you've never noticed me as Marinette…" she trailed off, averting her gaze.

He looked for those blue eyes, but they weren't looking back. So placing his finger delicately under her chin he turned her face back towards him. She looked at him, then looked away, then looked back, because he wasn't breaking eye contact.

"Is that what you think?" He asked, letting go of her since she was looking at him now.

But she moved again. "I shouldn't have transformed back, you have enough tough stuff to deal with without learning that it's just me behind the mask." She really didn't know how to interpret his expressions and movements and the tension was killing her. "I should go", she started to say, making a move to get up off of the floor. Adrien jumped up after her and took hold of her wrist, gently pulling her back down to sitting beside him on the sofa this time.

"Wait," he pleaded. Sniffing, he reached up to his face and used his hand to wipe away at each eye. "These," he explained, pointing his tear covered fingertips towards her, "these ones are not sad tears".

She sat next to him in silence, trying to understand the implications of those words. She'd sat with him as he poured his heart out to Ladybug, revealing all of the negative things he'd been experiencing as the tears rolled down. Now he was saying that the seeming exact same tears he just cried in front of Marinette were not the same.

"I noticed you," he shared.

"Huh?" She asked, not really hearing him and definitely not getting what he was talking about.

"Marinette, how could I not notice _you_?!" he exclaimed. "After all you've done for me, for our friends, your caring, kind nature, your selflessness, your generosity. Of course I've noticed you!"

Her mouth was agape as he spoke, but as soon as she was finished her gaze dropped to her hands in her lap, as she started to fidget with her fingers, trying to take in the fact that he just spoke like that _about her_!

"You've never said anything, never pursued me…" she mumbled, cheeks burning red as she recognized she was having _this_ conversation with Adrien. Adrien Agreste. In his bedroom. In the dark.

"I've never pursued you because of my feelings for Ladybug, and because…" he stopped, sudden clarity coming to him as things fit together in his mind. "Wait, you _wanted_ me to pursue you?!"

Marinette's blush deepened as she was forced to make such outright confessions. "Yeah?" she offered.

Adrien suddenly burst out laughing and Marinette was left in shock. Before she could misinterpret and take any serious offence Adrien spoke up again to try and explain further.

"And Ladybug has been rebuffing Cat Noir because of your feelings for me?!"

"Yeah?" she answered meekly again.

Still chuckling, Adrien questioned, "Don't you see?"

But Marinette wasn't sure what she was supposed to be seeing. All she could see was the love of her life laughing about something to do with the fact that she had feelings for him.

"What?"

"Mari", he pointed out, using that little nickname she loved to hear him say and taking some of the weight off of her shoulders, "we've been competing, with ourselves, for each other!"

"Oh." She responded before the fullness of what he was explaining to her took root in her mind. She felt something positive in her heart before her brain caught up to the fact that the boy she loved as Adrien loved her back as Cat Noir. They had been in love with each other the whole time without either of them ever recognizing it.

"OH!" She exclaimed. And laughed. It was good to hear, and now appreciate, the laughter in this room, given the depth of the evening.

"You mean," she sought to clarify, "You like me?"

"Since we met! I think you know that, My Lady." He took her hand and kissed her on the knuckles. "The only reason I didn't pursue _you_ is that I was already pursuing you" he laughed again.

Her smile almost reached her ears, "Silly kitty" she giggled and flicked him on the nose.

This time _she_ relaxed into _his_ arms, resting her head on his shoulder.

"So are you telling me", she asked, "that if I had ever confessed to you, you would have turned me down because you had feelings for someone else, even though that someone else was me all along?"

"Yeah, that could have happened." He admitted, before quickly following up, "I don't know though. Ladybug was pretty short with me, so maybe I would have said yes and we would have dated anyway. Not that it makes too much difference now though right?"

"So you're assuming I'm going to date you now, are you?" Marinette teased.

"You can't turn me down anymore, now that you've discovered how purr-fect I am for you under the mask" he responded.

"Uggh," she rolled her eyes. "It begins. Does this mean I have to put up with puns from Adrien now too?"

"Absolutely, I'm not kitten around!" He laughed at his own joke.

"I might have to retract my confession after all"

"No you won't, I'm paw-some!"

"Adrien, stop!" She shouted, hitting him with one of the cushions and laughing.

"My Lady?" he asked, turning serious.

"Cat?"

"I'm so glad you're my Princess."

Now it was her turn to shed some tears.

* * *

They spoke long into the night, recalling some of their experiences as the superhero duo, especially the underlying romantic moments, as well as the close calls they had had when only one of them was in costume. As the evening wore on they had gotten more comfortable with each other, with Adrien's legs up on the footrest and Marinette's head rested on his lap as they looked at each other and talked.

In fact, they eventually fell asleep like this, Marinette first, Adrien not wanting to move her. And that was how his bodyguard found them, coming in to check on them just after one in the morning. Closing the window, he silently retrieved some blankets from storage, using one to cover Marinette and another to cover Adrien's legs. Adrien at least would be sore when he woke up, but his bodyguard thought he probably wouldn't mind.

* * *

The next day was a whirlwind. Police first (the bodyguard had successfully kept them from going into Adrien's room but they had hung around all night until they got a statement from him, with the offer of an on-hand counsellor), then reporters when they tried to go out.

"Did you know?" "How could you not know?" "Were you working with him?" "How do we know you aren't Hawkmoth?" "What happened to his miraculous?" "So your girlfriend spent the night?"

That last one nearly got a response – the only reason the reporter didn't get a black eye was that Marinette squeezed Adrien's hand to hold him back and pointed out all the cameras.

His faithful bodyguard had taken them on a route whereby he expertly lost any tailing journalists, dropping them at Master Fu's place. They had needed some relaxation they explained to him, not sure if he had caught on to their secret identities or not and him not being very talkative anyway. Talking it all through with Master Fu they were even able to meet Nooroo, Tikki & Plagg hugging him immediately after Master Fu took the pin. (Wayzz was not present since there was no one to wear his miraculous whilst Master Fu had the butterfly one.) It was a lot to process, and they knew that later they would need to meet up with the other miraculous holders to close out this part of their lives.

There was so much to figure out. Adrien was 18, so would he just inherit Gabriel's things? What would happen to the business? How long would Gabriel be in prison? There was no precedent for such a situation after all. Would Adrien live at home alone in the meantime?

Marinette's parents answered that final question. No, he would not. As soon as Alya and Nino had informed them of what was going on they had set up their spare room ready for him. He would stay with them as long as he needed to, at least until the court case for his father passed and the paparazzi cleared up from around his house. That said, it was not unusual for one of them to find the new couple asleep together on the sofa, video game abandoned on screen.

They had a lot to figure out, but this time it would be as Adrien and Marinette. Paris didn't need Ladybug & Cat Noir, not like it had before. They would show up here and there, discourage crime, encourage the community, but now their work as civilians would be what they used to change the world. Adrien had decided on the name for next year's Agreste fashion line, designing to be overseen by one regular Parisian, Marinette Dupain-Cheng, herself. The line would be called 'Miraculous' and all the profits would go to Parisian development charities.

* * *

 _ **End Notes:** __Thank you to everyone who has left kudos and comments, this has been such an encouraging experience._

 _If you're interested, I wrote a new story - you can check it out at: s/13079361/1/The-Greatest-Choice-They-ve-Ever-Had-To-Make_


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